Richard Pryor Comes Clean In Harrowing Recap Of Life

``Yes, it`s true,`` Richard Pryor said. ``After the fire (in 1980) I got hooked on drugs again. I`ve been clean now for 1/2 years, and it`s still one day at a time.``

Pryor was using a rallying cry from Alcoholics Anonymous, reflecting the group`s principle that for an addict, as long as he`s alive, it`s a daily battle to steer clear of drug abuse.

``I`ll tell you how bad it still is for me,`` Pryor said, seated in a North Carolina hotel room where he is at work on a new movie. ``If you were to put some `base` (cocaine crystals) on this table in front of me--if you were doing base--I`d have to leave the room. I couldn`t deal with it.

``And sometimes when I`m alone at night watching one of those cop shows on TV, and they have a drug bust and show the bags of cocaine spilling onto a table, I have to change channels.``

Pryor`s near-fatal addiction is the central subject of his superb new autobiographical film, ``Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life is Calling,`` which recounts his growth as a comedian and his disintegration as a human being.

Pryor, 45, directs himself for the first time, taking control of an erratic movie career marked with uniformly mediocre, post-fire films, including the revised version of ``Bustin` Loose,`` ``The Toy,`` ``Superman III`` and, most recently, ``Brewster`s Millions.``

There are more laughs in five minutes of one of his concert films than in all those turkeys combined.

The problem: Of late Pryor had been doing mainstream comic turns for the predominantly young moviegoing audience, rather than his more dangerous, adult humor. ``I did `Superman III` for the money,`` he admits. ``Lots of it.``

The triumph of ``Jo Jo Dancer`` is that Pryor does not spare himself

--neither his talent nor his mistakes--filling his life story with hilarious episodes from his strip club beginnings to his pathetic scratching for cocaine crystals on the living room carpet of his California mansion.

Pryor`s character in the film mistreats women and mistreats himself. But he typically is most kind to his audience. And we suspect that this behavior applies to scores of self-destructive entertainers who are more kind to strangers than to their dear ones or themselves.

``I only hope the movie shows that drugs may start out fun, but they never end in fun. The horror they brought me every night and the guilt they brought me every day is what drugs are about.

``And people think they can handle it. That`s a joke. Here I was, as the film shows, a snotty little kid from Peoria, who was allowed to rise to the top, who became a very big star--as big as anyone could want--and I couldn`t handle it. I became a drug addict.``

Certain to be the most-talked-about scene in the movie is the moment when Pryor sets himself aflame while doing drugs.

Whereas the popular notion is that Pryor accidentally set himself on fire while using cocaine liquefied by a flame (``freebasing``), in the movie the accident is depicted as nothing less than a suicide attempt.

A drugged Pryor pours liquor over his body and then, off-screen, ignites his clothing.

``I did try to kill myself,`` Pryor admits freely. ``I have only fragments of memory about exactly what happened that night, but I know I tried to kill myself. The pain . . . it had come to that.``

Some observers may suspect Pryor of fudging on the truth because he didn`t want to show himself freebasing, thereby making ``Jo Jo Dancer`` an instructional film. In other words, the alcohol-dousing may be only symbolic of his death wish.

``That`s right,`` Pryor said. ``There were many drafts of the script, and I decided I didn`t want to show kids how it was done.``

However morbid it may be, a fan of Pryor`s can`t help but wonder why Pryor would choose--if he indeed did choose--to die in flames.

Why not something more direct, like a bullet though the head?

``They had taken away all my guns,`` Pryor answered quickly, referring to his friends and bodyguards.

Why not jump off a building?

``I was (doing base) on the first floor,`` he said.

Why not a lot of pills?

``I had taken them,`` he said, and paused. ``The point is I was crazy, and I couldn`t take it anymore. Maybe you have to be crazy to understand it, but I was powerless over drugs, and I still am.``

The excellence of ``Jo Jo Dancer`` comes as a major surprise. The film was rumored to be ``in trouble`` late last year when its Christmas opening was delayed--never a good sign.

Indeed, Pryor confirmed that re-editing took place and that new scenes and music (supervised by Herbie Hancock) were added.

``Basically my first cut was very impressionistic,`` he said, ``with lots of flashes forward and back. It was too confusing for audiences. So we decided to tell the story more chronologically. That was the major change.``

That ``Jo Jo Dancer`` exists at all is a rare accomplishment. In the history of movies, few major performers have had clout to write, produce, direct and star in their life story.

Bob Fosse came the closest, seven years ago in his similarly scorching